Woman guilty of $18k credit card fraud

A cash-strapped restaurant worker, who got a friend to pose as her sister and apply for credit cards to make fraudulent transactions, was jailed for more than two years on Monday.

Junainah Mohamed Nasir, 29, and Nurul Ashikin Ramdan, 26, were living together when they ran into financial difficulties in April last year.

Nurul knew her 29-year-old sister, Ms Siti Nur Fatimah, had several credit cards and conspired with Junainah to get replacements sent to the latter's home from ANZ, Citibank and United Overseas Bank.

They ran up a $17,662 bill on these cards - including two cash withdrawals from Citibank ATMs - buying items including iPhones and tablet computers. They then sold these items and spent the proceeds on daily expenses and gambling machines.

Junainah abetted Nurul who deceived S. Mobile Solutions into believing that she was the owner of the ANZ card which was used to buy $8,136 worth of electronic goods on four occasions between April 27 and 29 last year. To allay suspicion, Nurul lied that the items were bought for their company's lucky draw.

The pair also went to another shop called Mobile 8 at Pasir Ris Central and duped the sales manager into believing that Nurul was the rightful owner of the ANZ card which was used to buy $2,919 worth of goods.

The court heard that they withdrew $1,450 from Ms Siti's Citibank account at the ATM in Outram MRT station on April 24 last year. They gambled it all away.

Junainah also pocketed $3,311 last month while working as a shift manager at Pastamania in Bedok Point. She was jailed for a total of 27 months after pleading guilty to five charges of abetment by conspiracy to cheat, and one each of theft and criminal breach of trust. Nurul has yet to be charged and the prosecution said that her case is still being investigated.